Shenzhou
by aspiringAnimator
Summary: The debris hit the Hubble, landing her into this mess. Now, it's guiding her home. Complete.


Tuesday, August 30th, 2022.

Tiangong is falling.

It was always falling, of course. Always missing planet Earth, revolving around, and around for the better part of a decade. But this time, it was going to hit.

The station was empty. As China sought to 'reimagine' its space program to compete with that of the Europeans and Americans, nobody had been in it for a few months. Except one astronaut. Ryan Stone.

And she was in a lot of trouble. More than the average person, actually.

"Um... ah, eenie, meenie-"

Ryan, sitting in the escape pod Shenzhou, was pressing buttons at random in the vain hope that one of them would allow her to undock from the rest of the station. Her gloved finger presses a button, and an alarm rings out.

"Okay, that doesn't sound good."

The space station, completed a few months ago, is shuddering violently against the thickening atmosphere outside. Ryan picks another button and random, and says, "Minie... mo."

A warning playing over and over again on a loop rings out from speakers above her in Mandarin. In a horrible accent, Ryan says, "Ah! No hablo chino," and presses the button again.

There's not much more time. "Uhhh... minie... mo?"

Her black glove is pushed into a third button, which causes a timer to show up on the computer display of the escape pod, counting down from sixty seconds. She nods, uttering, "Okay... okay, good, good..."

The station cruises over the atmosphere, solar panels being ripped off first in a frenzy of silicon particles. A sun rises in the east, coating the landscape in a hazy white below. The strong atmospheric currents jolt Tiangong around, inflicting the G-Forces on its sole occupant.

"Houston... Houston, in-the-blind?"

She's sitting in the capsule, all alone as the station shakes. She grips the seat, and continues. "This is Mission Specialist Ryan Stone... reporting from the Shenzhou? I am about to undock from Tiangong... uh..."

Ryan searches for the right words, even knowing that nobody can probably hear her. And then, she remembers what Matt said, back in what felt like decades ago, while they were repairing the Hubble. "...and I have a bad feeling about this mission! Haha!"

She looks around in the sweltering pod. Her helmet is drifting overhead, and she knows soon she will be forced to don it once more. "Reminds me of a story, Houston-"

A chunk of debris slams into Tiangong, creating a horrible bump that nearly jolts her out of her seat. The station groans, and vibrates once more. "Never... never mind the story, Houston. Never mind the story!" she yells, as the heat goes to her head. "Ohhh, it's getting hot in here. Okay! Alright... okay... alright, the way I see it, there's only two possible outcomes. Either I... make it down there in one piece and I have one hell of a story to tell... or I burn up in the next ten minutes! Haha!"

She's clearly gone mad, as the situation grows even more dire. She's in a space station with her life clinging to the bare hopes that this escape pod will get her back to Earth safely. "Either way, whichever way... no harm, no foul! Agh!"

The station vibrates heavily once again, as she looks up in desperation and hope. "Hahaha... argh! Because either way... it'll be one hell of a ride."

"I'm ready."

She extends her arms upwards, grabs onto her helmet, and clasps it into its socket, right as-

BOOM. A flying chunk of debris crashes into the entire station, breaking it into two. Flames lick the sides of it, as it hurtles deeper and deeper into the atmosphere, spinning wildly out of control, and glowing with an orange hue.

The escape pod is spinning faster and faster now, as Ryan clutches her seat, pushed down by sheer G-Force. "Aaaaahhhhh!"

Shenzhou is flinging itself towards Earth, ripping - utterly _ripping _through the atmosphere - followed by a trail of debris, all coming from Tiangong, and all headed for Earth. Flames roar around the capsule, as it spins out of control. This isn't how reentry is supposed to go.

Ryan knows this, too. She reaches out to press the button that will separate the engine module from Shenzhou, so it will return to Earth smoothly. However, the G-Force is just too much. As the capsule glows orange with the heat of friction, she reaches down, and finally manages to press the button.

Shenzhou separates into three. The middle capsule holds Ryan, and is her ticket home. With its heat shield now in full effect, it can begin slowing down, thankfully. However, the journey's only just begun, as debris flings itself all around, just barely missing the pod. The pieces are roaring through the atmosphere at a whopping eight thousand kilometers per hour, burning up, breaking into two pieces, smashing into each other, all chasing Ryan's capsule.

The debris hit the Hubble, landing her into this mess. Now, it's guiding her home.

Her capsule is malfunctioning. Electric sparks are flickering out of the machinery, smoke is wafting up from the equipment, and the shock absorbers are unable to cushion the blows she receives as she's launched up and down in her seat, hands over her chest, eyes glancing around, terrified.

The Shenzhou is returning home. It descends through the atmosphere like a meteor, leaving a trail of smoke in the thickening air. Pieces around the capsule explode, breaking into thousands of pieces, unable to withstand harsh reentry, and instead becoming a fiery mess in the stratosphere. From the ground, the debris of Tiangong must look like a meteor shower.

Ryan's escape pod is hit with another shard of debris passing by - a porthole is ripped off, blasting out whatever air pressure the capsule still had. There's no way she can survive this. Everything is malfunctioning.

Shenzhou passes through a layer of clouds on its trip to the ground, slowing down ever more in the cooling layers of air. Its metal is no longer glowing a bright orange, but a much cooler gray. A hatch on the top opens miraculously, and heavy plumes of red-and-white parachute billow out, expanding into the safety net that will carry her home.

Inside the capsule, Ryan was pushed into her seat by the force of the parachute. It deployed, by some miracle of human design. This hunk of metal was actually carrying her home. Before she knew it, there was a constant pressure pushing her into her seat. For an instant, she thought she was going up again, but no, the force she was feeling was _gravity_, pushing her into her chair.

The escape pod still seemed to be malfunctioning. As Shenzhou descended, flames licked out from the panels, as garbled radio was emitted from the machinery, in spurts of information that she was unable to pick up.

"_...__as you move onto Friday, your highs are gonna be in the mid-eighties, cooling down into the evenings..._"_  
_

"..._Shenzhou in-the-blind? This is Houston. This is the FM radio frequency..._"

"_...Russian Federation has released a statement this morning stating that the satellite chain reaction was not intentional. Authorities from the UN are investigating..._"

"..._detect you on a reentry trajectory. Do you copy? Please confirm identity_..."

Ryan wildly glanced around, terrified at the smoking capsule. The flames began to roar from the machinery, creating sweltering heat that she could feel even under her suit.

The escape pod descended further, approaching a large body of water surrounded by tall plateaus. It seemed like the middle of nowhere. With a burst of the landing thrusters, the capsule landed with a splash into the lake, letting the parachute gently settle out above.

Ryan removed her helmet, and immediately began coughing from the smoke that still filled the capsule. She gasped, and reached over at the porthole door. The radio garble continued to be heard in a distorted frequency.

"..._CNN informó de la muerte de once astronautas de esta mañana, que incluye a los astronautas de la NASA de la semana pasada la misión STS-157. La ubicación del astronauta duodécimo, la Dra. Ryan Stone, está siendo investigado actualmente_..."

"..._confirm identity. We have deployed a rescue mission to retrieve you. Rescue mission is_..."

"..._well, Bob, I don't know about you, but my plans for Labor Day weekend are ruined now! Hahahaha! I was driving home, and I looked up_..."_  
_

She pressed a few buttons, and pulled down a switch, expelling the porthole door, and letting in fresh air. Unfortunately, water began flooding into the compartment.

Ryan gasped, holding onto the pod for all she was worth, but the sheer force of water was too strong, and she let go, falling to the back of the escape pod. Water was rushing in now, making it impossible to think, or breathe. Shenzhou was sinking.

_I am NOT dying like this. Not after what I've been through_, Ryan thought to herself, as she took a last few breaths from the remaining air of the pod, and swam out the door.

Shenzhou had sunken all the way to the bottom of the lake. Luckily, it was only around fifteen feet deep, meaning that if she was quick enough, she could swim upwards. The instant she tried swimming up, however, foiled by her space suit, which weighed her down so much that it was impossible to move. Moving rapidly underwater, she unzipped the suit as quickly as possible. There wasn't much time left.

Within a few more moments, the suit was finally discarded, leaving her in her underclothes once more. With a few kicks of her feet, Ryan propelled herself towards the surface, to finally get a breath of air.

She broke the surface of the water, gasping for air, and looking around. Still catching her breath, she lay on her back, looking up at the clouds. She was actually home. Not breathing artificial air from a canister, but real, _fresh_ air, infinite in volume. She looked up at the clouds, unable to believe she had actually made it.

Flaming pieces of satellites dipped from behind the clouds, roaring through reentry, breaking up into pieces majestically, and returning home. Ryan thought of the impact that the disaster must have had for the first time. How would anybody be able to communicate to each other? She watched a few more chunks of debris roaring through the atmosphere, and then decided to swim to shore.

Ryan paddled her way to the muddy edge of the lake, grunting with the effort of pulling herself up. After spending over a week in space, actually having to withstand the force of gravity was surprisingly difficult. She pulled herself up, and elected to just lie on the dirt, feeling the earth, and thinking of the impossible probability that she had actually survived everything that she did. She laughed... pulling the dirt closer to her, actually feeling it, knowing that she was home. She looked around once more at the pure wilderness, looked down, thought of Matt, and whispered, "Thank you."

She pulled herself up to stand, only to fall back down again. She laughed once more... after everything Ryan had went through, the hardest thing was _standing up_. With shaky hands, she stood cautiously, finally letting both her feet support her. She was Ryan Stone, and damn it, she had survived mission STS-157. It was incredible. Ryan stood there, laughing, looking around, with the knowledge that she was finally _safe_ now. She was home.


End file.
